Here's The Most Impressive Thing About Apple's New iPhone Software

Apple released iOS 7, a complete remake of the look and feel of
the iPhone and iPad's operating system, last week.

iOS 7 had the potential to be a complete and utter disaster for
Apple. It was
tossing out Steve Jobs' design, which featured life-like
illustrations, in favor of a simpler design that had none of
those.

It was, in many ways, the first
truly post-Steve Jobs product Apple released.

This is an excellent turn of events for Apple. In the past three
years, Apple's new iPhone led to a variety of controversies, and
embarrassments.

The iPhone 4 led to Antennagate,
which ultimately proved to be utter nonsense, but still led
mainstream news programs and even forced Apple to hold an
impromptu news conference to explain why people thought the phone
was losing its reception.

The iPhone 4S came with Siri, which was supposed to be a voice
activated personal assistant. Siri didn't work as billed. It was,
and still is, essentially useless. A year after it was released,
a former Apple employee said, "People are embarrassed
by Siri ... Steve [Jobs] would have lost his mind over
Siri."

The iPhone 5 came with Apple Maps, which were another mess.
Apple Maps replaced Google's maps on the iPhone. But, Apple Maps
didn't (and still don't) have transit directions. It gave (and
still gives) bad directions. Its vaunted 3D maps were glitchy and
filled with inaccuracies.

With Forstall out, Cook promoted Jony Ive, the design god
who made the hardware that defined Apple through the years. Ive,
who had no real software expertise, took over the the look and
feel of iOS.

At the same time, Craig Federighi, who was leading OS X, the
operating system that runs Apple's iMacs and laptops, took over
as the lead engineer for iOS.

Essentially, Ive was responsible for the look of iOS, Federighi
was responsible for the nuts and bolts of iOS, making sure it
works. Federighi contributed ideas for the look, but his role is
less visionary than Ive.

Together, Ive and Federighi got started on iOS 7 in November. We
don't know all the inner workings of Apple, but it seems like
they ripped up whatever Apple had planned and started from
scratch.

In just 10 months, it managed to overhaul almost every piece of
the iPhone's software while still adding new gestures and
features. At the same time, Apple was adding features to OS X, it
was developing the new iPhones, it was developing new iPads, and
we assume it was working on new products like an iWatch, or Apple
TV, or something else we can't imagine.

It would have been very easy to botch iOS 7.

The fact that Apple got iOS 7 right has largely been taken for
granted. It shouldn't be, especially considering all that we just
detailed.

When Apple delivered back to back flops with Siri and maps, it
was worrisome. Apple's rivals were catching up in hardware
quality; and by offering bigger screens, one could argue rivals
were beating Apple in hardware.